Kirstie Simson is renowned as an excellent teacher, a captivating performer and a leading light in the field of Dance Improvisation. For the past thirteen years she has been a tenured professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois. In August 2020 Kirstie returned to her home base in Wales from where she continues to share her work though with curtailed international travel. Her work reflects this new focus as she explores the relevance of an artistic practice that can help us develop resilience in the face of catastrophe and consider how embodied intelligence will be advantageous as we undertake the momentous challenge to shift our consciousness from a human-centric perspective to a lived understanding that we are an integral part of life, from which an attitude of respect and care will naturally arise. She is excited about her involvement with the Black Mountains College, a local college where a curriculum of planet-centric education will be launched in 2021 for building a better future.  www.kirstiesimson.com

Darrell Jones has performed in the United States and abroad with a variety of choreographers and dance companies such as Urban Bush Women, Ronald K. Brown and Min Tanaka. He continues to have long-term collaborative relationships with Bebe Miller Company and Ralph Lemon. His artistic research has found its central focus through a conversation between his postmodern training and the voguing aesthetic. Through years of experimenting and analyzing oppression as it lives in the body, Darrell seeks to excavate how individuals accumulate identity and mirror culture through movement.